Benfica – Paris Saint-Germain: Benfica Contain Star-Studded PSG Attack To Come Away With A Point (1-1)
The top two of Group H in the Champions League crossed paths in one of the standout fixtures of Wednesday night. The top two of Group H in the Champions League crossed paths in one of the standout fixtures of Wednesday night. Paris Saint-Germain were of course the favourites for this fixture given the qualitative superiority of their players, but Benfica prepared and executed a well thought out gameplan that allowed them to come away with a point.
Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.
Roger Schmidt’s tenure at Benfica has gotten off to about as good a start as he could have dreamt of. The German head coach first comfortably steered them through a couple of Champions League qualifiers, before launching the league campaign with seven consecutive wins until the draw with Vitória de Guimarães last weekend. They were drawn in a relatively tough Champions League group, but managed to win their first two games against Maccabi Haifa and more importantly Juventus to give themselves a very good chance of qualifying for the knockouts.
Paris Saint-Germain were also enjoying life under their new manager, Christophe Galtier. They too were leading their domestic league having won all but one of their matches, and were also well on course for progression to the Champions League knockouts. Crucially, Galtier had managed to do something his predecessors had not, which is to get the star-studded front line of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar clicking without disrupting the overall balance of the team.
The home side lined up in their favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, with Odysseas Vlachodimos in goal, veteran Nicol . . .
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